Originally posted by Halogram:
Originally posted by sysanalyst:
Quote:

The purpose of putting that picture up was to give you an idea about how to connect the wires to the coil as there may have been some concern on which wire went to which plug.



I know how to connect the wires to the coil I work on cars for a living . But anyways What I need to know is Firing order is 1-4-3-2 or 1-3-4-2

which is Correct?

If that is firing order next question is looking at the motor from the front of the car is it 1-2-3-4 or 4-3-2-1

Problem Ive seen to many contradictory things in books and sites. One says this is the way shows the coil numbered one way, then ill see another one and the coil is numbered another way. OK

Next thing I need to know is Look at this picture.



Based on this picture it is notch closest to the holes in the pulley is this correct?

If so then the motor is timed like it should be. Cams were aligned, and I used tire crayon to highlight the notch and the key on the side of the block. The timing belt was put on backwards and we lossened the cam sprokets to get any play out of the belt from crank to exhaust cam, exhaust cam to intake cam. No play there what so ever. Well lets start with this and see if I have something backwards or not done properly.



I was not trying to impugn your intelligence, and if that is what happened, I truly apologize. Heck, I'm a computer analyst with a Contour, only work on them now and again, definitely not an auto repair professional. Just trying to display which wire goes to which plug - hardware is sort of challenging to us softwre people - didn't know your background.

I've looked at our '98 SE Zetec and it looks like it is wired as in the picture, meaning each wire from the coil goes to the plug as pictured on that "confusing" diagram with the #1 pointing a what should be #4 cylinder.

As far as the crank pulley marks, darn, even the factory manual indicates the "big" notch is there as a reference to keep all pistons off of TDC. I'd take that to mean that the big mark means next to nothing, although very confusing.

All told, I'd do the dial indicator method of finding TDC, lock the crank, align the cams, put on the belt (there was a n 8 step procedure for adjusting it on the CDROM) and run a compression test before buttoning her up.

Here is a silly idea;

Hook up a timing light to what is believed to be #1 plug, have somebody turn over the engine. Shine the light against the crank pulley and find out if either notch is TDC for once and for all. Also, if possible, point the light down #1 plug hole to make sure the spark is occuring when the piston is near the top of the bore (and that no valves are open on that cylinder either).

Know it must be horribly frustrating trying to figure this one out when even the factory manuals don't do a good job of displaying repair details.

Let me know if any pictures from under the hood of a '98 Contour 2.0 zetec would be of help? Perhaps a picture of the coil top with the numbers on it and which plugs the wires go to.

Good luck.